Longtime WAAY 31 Morning News Anchor Chris Tatum says it’s time to leave TV news in the hands of the next generation of broadcast journalists, as he exits the industry after nearly 30 years.
Tatum anchored his final newscast – WAAY 31 News Midday – last Friday, August 28th. “Midday” is the only news program still produced and anchored at WAAY 31’s studio atop Monte Sano, after WAFF TV owner, Gray Media purchased the station earlier this year and merged the two news operations.
“I want to be very clear that leaving TV is my decision,” Tatum explains. WAFF graciously offered me a position, and I carefully considered it. To be part of a news team created by the merger of two legacy stations is a big deal, and I agonized over my decision to decline it.”
Instead, Tatum will now run Chris Tatum TV LLC, a content and strategy company he launched earlier this year, not long after Gray Media announced plans to purchase WAAY,
“At that time, I wasn’t sure how things would shake out with the stations combining, and I wanted to be prepared for whatever happened,” he says. “By the time they made me an offer, my entrepreneurial spirit had kicked into high gear, and I was ready to try something new.”
Tatum joined WAAY 31 in 2021 and quickly became a staple of Huntsville morning television. This is his second stint at WAAY, having worked there as the Sand Mountain Bureau Chief from 2000 – 2001.
In the course of his 30 year career, Tatum has anchored and reported at stations across the southeast, including Birmingham’s ABC 33/40, Nashville’s WSMV, and at Savannah, Georgia’s WJCL, where he spent six years as its morning anchor before returning to WAAY.
“The first thing I’m going to do after TV is take a long nap,” Tatum says with a chuckle, as he reminisces about his time in both Savannah and Huntsville. “I’ve been waking up at 1 a.m. for eleven straight years, and I’m finally going to get to sleep in!”
Tatum expects he will miss TV for a while, especially during breaking news and severe weather coverage.
“TV’s a tough business and I’m proud I’ve lasted as long as I have,” he boasts. “I’m leaving it in capable hands, and with the greatest sense of gratitude to WAAY for believing in me and bringing me back to Huntsville, and to WAFF for being a worthy morning show competitor, and for also believing in me enough to invite me to join its top-notch team. But I am especially grateful to the people across the Tennessee Valley who invited me into their homes every morning, and who made me part of their families. Thank you!”